PITCH BACK: Mets pitcher Zack Wheeler was demoted to the minor league training camp yesterday, but the team expects the righty — who has been suffering from an oblique injury — to make it to the big leagues this season.Anthony J. Causi

PITCH BACK: Mets pitcher Zack Wheeler was demoted to the minor league training camp yesterday, but the team expects the righty — who has been suffering from an oblique injury — to make it to the big leagues this season. (Anthony J. Causi)

PORT ST. LUCIE — Zack Wheeler threw batting practice yesterday for the first time since injuring his oblique.

That was the good news.

The bad news was the batting-practice session came in minor league camp after the Mets right-hander was among the cuts from the major league team. It was a development that was expected — although it was hastened by the oblique injury suffered in his lone Grapefruit League appearance against Washington on Feb. 23.

While Wheeler anticipated the move, he was still disappointed.

“I’m not happy,” Wheeler said after receiving the news from Terry Collins, pitching coach Dan Warthen and general manager Sandy Alderson. “I had the injury and that set me back a little bit. I only got out there one time. That’s the one thing I’m mad about. I wanted to go out there and prove myself.”

“I know he’s disappointed,” the manager said. “He has every right to be, but he’s going to get his chance [and] just like Matt Harvey, when he gets here he’ll never leave.”

Just like Harvey a year ago, Wheeler will have to wait.

“I just told him I felt bad he didn’t get a chance to pitch,” Collins said. “But you’re sitting in the same seat Matt Harvey did last year and the one thing you’ve got to realize is when you’re ready to pitch and you get in games and your season starts, pitch your way out of that league. If you force us to call you, we’ll be calling you.”

Returning to the mound helps. Wheeler threw 27 pitches, topping out at 95 mph, on a back field at the Mets’ minor league facility.

Alderson acknowledged the oblique strain played a role in the demotion.

“We didn’t want to run him out there just to pitch an inning or so in a major league game just coming back from that,” Alderson said. “We thought it was better he pitch in a less formal setting. … He needs to get ready to pitch and the innings are starting to get scarce.”

Now that Wheeler is on the minor league side, where there are more games, that will change soon enough.

Alderson said Wheeler’s arrival in New York might not be far away.

“He’s competitive,” Alderson said. “He was probably a little bit disappointed, but in the long run this is in his best interests. He’s obviously somebody who’s close and someone we think very highly of.”

Although his spring hasn’t gone according to plan, Wheeler still sees value in his time with the major leaguers.

“I just [learned] how to conduct myself around here,” Wheeler said. ‘‘When I come back, I won’t be like a deer in headlights.”